Jeff Poor

During his weekly appearance with Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne on NPR’s “All Things Considered” on Friday, New York Times columnist David Brooks all but renewed his love affair with President Barack Obama after it had been on the rocks in recent weeks.

Brooks had once admired the president’s “perfectly creased pant.” And on NPR on Friday, he admitted he still has somewhat of an admiration for President Obama, particularly for the answers he gave in an interview about foreign policy to Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic magazine last week.

“It’s interesting because I don’t think anybody really believes the sanctions [against Iran], the short-term sanctions [are] going to work,” Brooks said. “So I am not sure where we’re headed in this. The final thing, I’d say, I wish all voters would read the interviews. Whether you agree with Obama or not, he’s a very intelligent, sophisticated interview. He understands where the questions are going; he redirects in the right way.”

Brooks cited Obama’s rhetoric on the Iran-Israel situation as one reason for his glowing review.

“So one of the things he said, for example: This isn’t about an Iran-Israel dispute, this is about American values,” Brooks said. “This is about the peace of the Middle East. And he reframes things in a very sophisticated way. Before we get to an ideological question — what you will believe in — we should have a president that can speak like that. I think Mitt Romney probably can. I’m not sure about some of the other candidates.”